Vision 2025 reaches 66 percent as Samia hints on future

Dar es Salaam.  The government yesterday reported having achieved 66 percent of its current development vision for 2025 as a new version of the roadmap is now being prepared.

Tanzania Development Vision 2025, launched 23 years ago, envisions the creation of a society characterised by a better quality of life, peace, stability, solidarity, good governance, an educated populace, and a competitive economy fostering inclusive and sustainable growth.

Updating the status of the implementation of the current vision, the minister in the President’s Office overseeing Planning and Investment, Prof Kitila Mkumbo, shed light on the substantial strides made across key sectors during the period.

Education, health, water, infrastructure, and good governance emerged as focal points of success, with tangible results contributing to the nation’s advancement, according to Prof Mkumbo.

“The goals set in the national development vision for the year 2025 have been achieved by 66 percent. Therefore, in the remaining two years, we believe we will reach 90 to 100 percent,” he stated.

One notable benchmark of progress he mentioned was the improvement in Tanzania’s Human Development Index (HDI).

According to Prof Mkumbo, the United Nations Development Programme’s (UNDP) HDI revealed that at the initiation of Vision 2025, Tanzania stood at 0.40, with the government setting an ambitious target of reaching 0.65, and as of 2022, the country has already attained a commendable 0.55.

In terms of economic development, Prof Mkumbo singled out the growth of a semi-industrialised economy. Over the two decades of Vision 2025 implementation, he said the average economic growth stood at approximately 6.1 percent, with inflation maintaining a single-digit figure.

The contribution of construction and manufacturing industries to national income surged from 24.3 percent in 2000 to 35.6 percent in 2022, he affirmed.

Exports of manufactured goods, according to Prof Mkumbo, experienced a substantial boost, escalating from $43.1 million in 2000 to a substantial $1.3 billion in 2022. Notably, the overall export of goods saw a meteoric rise from $975 million in 2000 to $5.91 billion in 2020.

The commemoration of Tanzania’s independence served as the backdrop for this announcement, aligning with the endorsement of a team of experts tasked with drafting the new vision.

President Samia Suluhu Hassan, in her remarks, identified key areas to consider in shaping the forthcoming vision.

President Hassan expressed a desire to see the new vision prioritise economic growth tied to production sectors, particularly agriculture.

“In the exercise of preparing a new vision, we have to think about how we will stimulate economic growth in the areas of production that affect the most citizens and create jobs for them,” she said.

She emphasised the need to involve the informal sector in data collection, highlighting its vital role in the overall economy.

“It is quite possible that in the area of economic development we have done a lot of work, but because we do not have statistics for the informal sector, we have focused on the formal sector.”

The President stressed the importance of robust evaluation and monitoring mechanisms. She noted a historical lack of emphasis on these aspects in the current development vision.

“The existence of the institution of the planning commission will eliminate the defect and revive the issue of evaluation and monitoring, not only in the implementation of the next vision but in the implementation of any development plans for our country,” she said.

Coordination emerged as another critical aspect, with President Hassan citing the necessity to align priority projects with multiple sectors for optimal benefits.

Giving an illustrative example, she said, “When we talk about bringing water from Lake Victoria to Dodoma, for a long time we have focused on bringing water for domestic use, but we would use the same project in irrigation agriculture where the pipeline passes.”

President Hassan emphasised the importance of identifying and controlling potential threats be-fore they materialise, drawing from the nation’s experiences with disasters such as El Nino and the spread of dangerous diseases.

On the 62nd anniversary, President Hassan also did not forget the prisoners, as approximately 2,244 prisoners have benefited from the President’s pardon, and 263 prisoners will be released today (yesterday), December 9, 2023, according to a statement by the Minister for Home Affairs, Hamad Masauni.

The statement explains that two prisoners sentenced to death have been commuted to life imprisonment, and 1,979 prisoners have had their sentences reduced.